Chairman
"Our nation has been creating a fine culture since the dawn of human history. We are a homogeneous nation of the same blood. We are a nation that has lived on the same land, speaking the same language and developing the same culture since ancient times. We are a resourceful nation with a time-honoured history of five thousand years, a refined culture and traditions."
Historic vestiges and relics conveying the time-honoured history and brilliant cultural traditions of the Korean nation are precious data showing how the ancestors have lived and developed in our country.
The Neoanthropic fossils unearthed at the cave of Mt. Sungri in the upper reaches of the Taedong River in Juche 61 (1972)-Juche 62 (1973) are also one of the objective reminders.
The site is situated on the southeast slope of Mt. Sungri in Tokchon City, South Phyongan Province, about 75 km northeast of Pyongyang. (Photo 1)
Near the cave of the Mt. Sungri, the Shiryang River in the northwest and the Chongsong River in the north join the Taedong River.
This is a natural cave developed in the limestone layer on the second lower bank of the west bank of the Taedong River, with its entrance open to the southeast, so it has a long time to receive sunlight.
The cave, 17~18 meters from the river and 7 meters from the surface, is deep and bent to prevent cold winds, and it has mountains and rivers for hunting and fishing, so it was a good place for the primitive people to live.
At the time of excavation, the cave entrance was 7 m wide, 7.5 m high and the cave was 62.2 m long.
The cave was lined with deposits, and the Paleolithic culture was divided into two layers.
Just in the upper layer of the Paleolithic Age, one of the mandibles of a man named Sungrisan Man was found. (Photo 2)
The jaw convex of the Sungrisan man's mandible is developed.
The mandibular body length is 75.6 mm, slightly larger than that of modern humans (75.0 mm).
The angular width of the mandible is 114.0 mm, much wider than that of modern humans (103 mm), with a median junction height of 37.0 mm and a jaw aperture height of 38.6 mm.
The mandible body is thick but not very thick compared to its height.
The position of the jaw hole is very low.
Near the upper denture face of the inner mandible, there are two ovals convex symmetrically on both sides.
Among a pair of convex, the left one developed more strikingly than the right one.
The Sungrisan Man features an early Neolithic man in the development of mandible convex, low jaw hole positions, and the development of elliptical convex on the inside of the mandible.
Animal fossils were also found with anthropic fossils in the deposit of the Mt. Sungri cave, the Paleolithic upper cultural layer. The relative geologic age of this layer corresponds to the Upper Pleistocene when viewed with the animal fossils.
The Sungrisan Man of the Neolithic period clearly proves that he has created and developed primitive culture while continuing to live in the basin of the Taedong River in succession to the Tokchon Man of the Paleolithic period known from the lower cultural strata of the Paleolithic period.
